Navy Yard shooter latest example: Booted from military but still able to buy guns

They were deemed unfit to continue serving in the military -- yet nothing stopped Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis and a series of other former servicemen from buying guns as civilians before going on rampages in the last 14 months.

The law only keeps guns from the worst of the worst military rejects -- fewer than 800 in the most recent year data is available -- but does nothing to restrict gun purchases by thousands more who are discharged for what the military considers serious offenses.

Since last August alone, men booted from military service have used legally purchased firearms to slay six Sikh worshipers in Wisconsin, two co-workers in a New Jersey grocery store, two police detectives in Santa Cruz, and on Monday, 12 people in the Washington massacre.

In this photo, which The AP obtained from Don Andres, shooting victim Vishnu Pandit is assisted on the sidewalk while awaiting the arrival of emergency medical personnel after coworkers took him by car from the Washington Navy Yard to receive medical attention Monday, Sept. 16, 2013, in Washington. Pandit died of his injuries.
(AP Photo/Don Andres)

Yet, the idea of depriving guns from anyone who served their country is so sensitive, a pending bill in Congress defends the gun rights of people whom the Department of Veterans Affairs deems mentally incompetent.

"I've got great respect for the military and the men and women who serve, but there's a problem with those who no longer fit that code of conduct being dumped into local communities without warning or access to their record," said Santa Cruz deputy police Chief Steve Clark whose department lost a two officers -- Sgt. Loren "Butch" Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler -- when a former Army helicopter pilot ambushed them in February. "There needs to be some way for the military to communicate that information."

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Baker and Butler were gunned down by Jeremy Goulet, whose 2006 Army court martial for two allegations of rapes ended with a plea bargain and an "other-than-honorable" discharge that still allowed him to have three handguns registered to his name.

Goulet also picked up two misdemeanor convictions in 2008 in Oregon -- his gun went off during a scuffle with the boyfriend of a woman he was peeping on. He served two years in jail, but because neither crime was punishable by more than a year on its own, he wasn't prohibited from owning a gun.

Clark said his department had to navigate a sea of military red tape to get Goulet's records even after he killed the detectives and was shot to death by officers. "I understand the military has got good cause to keep a lot of things confidential ... but plea-bargaining a discharge cannot be a way for the military to manage their problems and dump it onto the local community," Clark said.

Gun-rights groups reject calls for more laws. And while Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, acknowledges "there must be far better communications and cooperation in the system," he said, there are "serious issues that come into play" such as privacy, doctor-patient confidentiality and government over-reach.

Under federal law, only a "dishonorable" discharge precludes a veteran from owning firearms in civilian life. A bad-conduct discharge doesn't do so unless it's for a crime punishable by more than a year behind bars. A dishonorable discharge can only be handed down by a court-martial for what the military considers the most reprehensible crimes -- things like desertion, sexual assault and murder.

But courts-martial are rare. Defense Department data obtained through a public-records request by this newspaper shows that in fiscal year 2012, only 766 enlisted members and 11 officers out of more than 2.2 million active and reserve personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines were court-martialed out of the service. That same year, 6,411 enlisted members and 16 officers were discharged for "commission of a serious offense," while thousands of others were kicked out for "character or behavior disorder," "good of the service (discharge in lieu of court-martial)," "misconduct, reason unknown" and other categories.

The Defense Department doesn't comment on disciplinary cases, but former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta -- speaking at the Santa Cruz detectives' funeral in March -- blasted the military justice system for "looking the other way" in permitting Goulet's plea bargain. Panetta declined to be interviewed for this story.

Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter, walked into a Virginia gun shop last week, passed an instant federal background check and legally bought a Remington 870 -- similar to the pump-action 12-gauge shotgun he'd been taught to use in the Navy. It didn't matter that he had been kicked out of the service in January 2011 for "a pattern of misconduct" including a gun incident.

Before joining the military, he was arrested in Seattle in 2004 for shooting out a car's tires in what he called "a 'black-out' fueled by anger." After joining, he was arrested in Georgia in 2008 for disorderly conduct and again in Texas in 2010 for firing a bullet into the apartment above his. He was never prosecuted for either gun crime.

And Alexis, 34, called Newport, R.I., police last month to say he was being harassed by people speaking to him through his hotel-room walls and using "some sort of microwave machine" to send vibrations into his body to keep him awake. He identified himself as a naval contractor, so Naval Station Newport's police were notified; they said they'd look into it.

Congress has made no move this year to ensure that potentially dangerous military dischargees can't buy firearms.

"If you're a military person, those records need to catch up" just as for civilians, said Rep. Mike Thompson, a Vietnam veteran and House Democrats' gun-control point man. "We've got to do a better job."

But a pending bill would ensure that veterans can keep or buy guns even after being found to be mentally incapacitated, mentally incompetent or experiencing an extended loss of consciousness in a Veterans Affairs Department benefits case. H.R. 602, the "Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act," by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., awaits a floor vote.

"We need to make sure that people who have problems don't get guns, period," he said, though he acknowledged "it's a tight line to walk -- we also don't want to do anything that would discourage someone who has mental problems from seeking help."

Aug. 5, 2012 — Wade Michael Page, 40, kills six and wounds four in a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisc., before being wounded by a police officer and then killing himself. Page was a white supremacist who had served in the U.S. Army from 1992 through 1998, learning to repair the Hawk missile system and then working as a psychological operations specialist. He was demoted, given added duties and fined for drunkenness on duty and going absent without leave. He later received a general discharge for “patterns of misconduct.”

Aug. 31, 2012 — Terence Tyler, 23, shoots and kills two of his co-workers and then himself at a grocery store in Old Bridge, N.J. A U.S. Marine Corps spokeswoman said Tyler had joined in March 2008, was trained as a rifleman and was stationed at Twentynine Palms before being discharged in February 2010 as a lance corporal. The Marines won’t comment on his discharge. Family members said he was discharged after suffering from depression, having never gotten over his mother’s 2007 death.

Feb. 26, 2013 — Jeremy Goulet, 35, shoots and kills two Santa Cruz police officers investigating a groping allegation against him. Goulet had joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1998 and was trained as a helicopter mechanic and police officer but quit an officer-candidate program in 2000 after two citations in peeping-tom cases; he was discharged in 2002. He joined the U.S. Army in 2004 and was trained as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, but while serving in Hawaii was accused of raping two female officers. His 2006 court martial could’ve put him in prison for life, but instead ended with a plea deal including an other-than-honorable discharge. He later served two years behind bars in Oregon for a 2007 peeping-tom case in which he carried a firearm.